Negative Numbers and NumberFormat
Mark Waddingham
mark at livecode.com
Wed Apr 5 14:56:40 EDT 2017
On 2017-04-05 20:28, Bob Sneidar via use-livecode wrote:
> And here is an oddity again. In the dictionary, there is no mention of
> spaces or any other character besides "0.#" being valid in a
> numberformat string, but:
>
> set the numberformat to " 00";put -09+0 & ":" & 00+0 & ":" & 00+0
>
> produces -09:000:000
>
> In fact, you can put ANYTHING in place of a 0, and it will treat it as
> though it were a 0!
>
> Whaaaaa???
I think the numberFormat is perhaps just appearing to do more than it
actually does. Basically it allows you to set the field width before and
after a decimal point. So:
set the numberFormat to "<N anything>.<M anything>"
Will result in the engine padding either side of the decimal point up to
the specified number of chars with 0 if the length of that part is less
than the specified width.
Whether or not the '-' sign should be included in these width
calculations I guess is a matter of debate...
Warmest Regards,
Mark.
P.S. Apologies for missing your actual point before, I should have read
the thread in more detail before posting ;)
--
Mark Waddingham ~ mark at livecode.com ~ http://www.livecode.com/
LiveCode: Everyone can create apps
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